1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to an image accessing unit and an image data transmission method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advancement of electronic technologies, personal computers (PCs) have become indispensable in our daily lives. As a result, PC users have become aware of peripheral products with functionalities that can be enhanced when used with a personal computer or which enhance the functionalities of the personal computer.
As an example, image accessing units (e.g., digital cameras and other digital imaging devices) are popular products that can be used with or integrated into a personal computer, notebook computer, tablet, mobile device, digital display frame, television with integrated processing, or other digital device. In conventional art, data from an image accessing unit is typically transferred to the personal computer through a universal serial bus (USB) or similar multi-pin interface. Please refer to the FIG. 1 which illustrates a schematic diagram of an image data accessed by a conventional image accessing unit. The conventional image accessing unit typically obtains a so-called YUV 4:2:2 image data through an image access operation. The image data is arranged in an array, and each of the rows ROW1-ROW3 includes the corresponding luma component Y and chroma components U and V of the sampled image. Taking the row ROW1 as an example, the row ROW1 includes the luma components Y11 and Y13 and the chroma components U12 and V14. ROW2 includes the luma components Y21 and Y23 and the chroma components U22 and V24, while row ROW3 includes the luma components Y31 and Y33 and the chroma components U32 and V34.
The conventional image accessing unit completely transfers the 4:2:2 image data depicted in FIG. 1 to the computer. When transporting large quantities of image data using currently available transmission speed with the currently available transmission bandwidth, transfer is slow and the image display performance of the computer is sluggish.